Lenny’s Podcast86 min
Graham Weaver · Jan 16, 2025
Key learnings- Ask yourself what you would pursue if you knew you wouldn't fail, then work backward from that goal to find a path toward it.
- Write down your limiting beliefs and fears on paper; once externalized they lose power and become concrete to-do items you can…
- Build accountability through an executive coach, a like-minded friend, or a weekly written form tracking goals and next steps.
SVPG · Marty CaganFeb 3, 2013
Feb 3, 2013 · 4 min
Marty Cagan argues that the word "pivot" is overused in product teams and that teams too often abandon their product vision far too early. He separates two kinds of pivots: vision pivots, which change the underlying…
Lenny’s Podcast112 min
Chris Hutchins · Dec 18, 2022
Key learnings- Committing to a steady weekly cadence, even for just 10 weeks, puts a podcast in roughly the top few percent of all shows ever…
- Only start a podcast if you would keep doing it for free for a long time, because most shows take many months to gain traction…
- Structure a first season as a fixed number of episodes (e.g., eight) so you can test whether you actually enjoy the work before…
Lenny’s Podcast110 min
Anish Acharya · Sep 6, 2026
Key learnings- Treat each business function as an agent loop: map its inputs, outputs, and the points where it gets blocked, then supply…
- Expect loops to climb local maxima quickly, but plan for humans to supply out-of-distribution intuition that moves you to the…
- When an agent gets stuck, have a human coach it through the problem; the captured traces let the agent handle that case next time.
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 45
Dec 17, 2019 · 13 min
““French fries and buffalo wings are the most difficult problem in the restaurant delivery industry today. We are obsessed with challenging ourselves to consistently deliver them hot and crispy.” — Micah Moreau (VP Growth, DoorDash) Welcome to the second-to-last 😳 post of my eight-part limited series on kickstarting and scaling a marketplace business. In this post, I’ll share the top ten strategies that today’s biggest marketplace…”
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJun 7, 2012
Jun 7, 2012 · 3 min
Teresa Torres argues that the rapid user decline of BranchOut, a Facebook-based social recruiting app, was predictable because its core assumption failed. Her team had built a similar product and, through interviews…
Lenny’s Podcast81 min
Brendan Foody · Sep 18, 2025
Key learnings- Treat evals as the product requirement document for a model: if you cannot measure what success looks like for a task, you cannot…
- Companies should build a systematic test of how AI automates their core value chain, since that measurement is the prerequisite…
- Evals also serve as sales collateral, showing customers and researchers concretely which real-world capabilities a model or…
SVPG · Marty CaganMar 7, 2012
Mar 7, 2012
Marty Cagan argues that a product proving it works and is usable is not the same as a product people will actually choose to buy and use. He calls the smallest functional, usable version a 'Minimal Product' and reserves…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Megan Cook · Feb 4, 2024
Key learnings- Pair product managers in small peer feedback groups every couple of weeks so people can share rough drafts and get feedback in a…
- Treat psychological safety as a precondition for bolder ideas; Megan argues the opposite of play is fear, not work.
- Schedule a recurring block for working through conflict early, so disagreements are addressed before they grow.
SVPG · Marty CaganJun 22, 2013
Jun 22, 2013
Cagan distinguishes two lightweight planning tools that are often confused: the Business Model or Lean Canvas and the Opportunity Assessment. The Canvas suits new businesses or entirely new product lines, where many…
HEY World · Jason FriedAug 21, 2025
Aug 21, 2025
Jason Fried argues that owning an independent company is a rare privilege, one that frees leaders to experiment in ways that public companies and businesses forced to justify every move cannot. He encourages owners not…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 340
Jun 9, 2026 · 7 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky's paid newsletter, the second part of a series, recommends 24 long-standing books for product builders, grouped by the jobs they help with, such as design, taste, influence, starting a company, career…
Lenny’s Podcast124 min
Jake Knapp + John Zeratsky · Feb 11, 2024
Key learnings- Start each day by choosing a highlight: imagine the day is over and decide what you'd want to call the highlight, then protect a…
- Don't rely on willpower; change your environment by logging out of apps, deleting infinity-pool apps from your phone, or adding…
- Use your calendar as a design tool by blocking focus time, meals, exercise, and personal priorities, then adjust the template…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 121
Dec 5, 2023 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky profiles Saturn, a calendar-centered social app for high school students that became a top App Store performer. The post draws five lessons from its founders on building viral consumer social products…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 8
Sep 15, 2020 · 7 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky argues that good PMs make product teams better, and that the core PM jobs (shaping, shipping, and synchronizing) must be covered by someone regardless of hiring. He outlines three signs it's time to hire…
producthabits.com · Hiten ShahOct 15, 2018
Oct 15, 2018 · 35 min
This essay traces Medium's history from its 2012 launch by Evan Williams through its 2018 monetization struggles. It argues Medium's minimal design and long-form focus reinvigorated interest in in-depth writing and…
Lenny’s Podcast102 min
Deb Liu · Aug 4, 2022
Key learnings- Treat your career like a product: write down what success looks like in five years, the milestones and skills needed, and measure…
- Keep balancing learning and impact; the expert you are today will be outpaced by someone still actively learning from the best…
- Treat setbacks as stepping stones; people who recover from hard feedback and failed products often become the strongest leaders.
SVPG · Marty CaganSep 17, 2025
Sep 17, 2025 · 5 min
Marty Cagan argues that Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs)—technical product creators who embed with customers to deeply understand their problems—are a powerful practice that applies well beyond the hard, high-stakes…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 20
May 18, 2021 · 11 min
Carole Robin, co-creator of Stanford's 'Touchy Feely' course, answers a reader whose co-founder relationship is deteriorating while the business still needs it to work. She argues that co-founder friction, like marriage…
HEY World · Jason FriedJul 25, 2025
Jul 25, 2025
Jason Fried responds to the recurring criticism that Basecamp makes 'yet another' to-do list, chat, or messaging product. He admits the pull toward grander missions in tech is real, but argues it looks odd when applied…
produxlabs.com · Melissa PerriMay 24, 2020
May 24, 2020
Melissa Perri argues that product leaders should deliberately invest in "the product of you" and plan their career path toward product leadership. Beyond building core skills, aspiring leaders need to decide what kind…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 12
Feb 18, 2020 · 4 min
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader who just sold their startup and is moving into a product manager role without formal PM training. Drawing on his own experience after Localmind was acquired by Airbnb, he admits he was a…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 60
Oct 12, 2021 · 15 min
This guest-written issue, drawn from Ali Abouelatta's First 1000 research, catalogs 60 examples of 'Turbo Boosts,' one-off events that temporarily accelerate growth. It frames them as the fuel-like components of a…
Lenny’s Podcast85 min
Garrett Lord · Aug 24, 2025
Key learnings- Post-training, not pre-training, now drives most model gains, so high-quality expert data targeting specific capability gaps is…
- The labeling market has shifted from cheap generalist labor to domain experts, so the right supply is credentialed specialists…
- Access to a trusted audience is the real moat in human data; owning an audience removes customer acquisition costs compared with…